We did get rid of most of our soffits, but there was one part that we could not. Our KD's design includes cabinets to the ceiling w/crown molding. Where the plumbing still sticks out, she's hiding it inside the cabinets...yes, that will probably make the top shelf in those few cabinets not very useful (at least not for big objects), but most of the cabinets will be completely useful as it only affects 2 or 3 of the 6 upper cabinets on that wall.

Others have "embraced" their soffits by decorating them.

Someone else trimmed them to make them look like part of the cabinetry w/skins and crown molding (this was actually what our KD was going to do as well if she couldn't regain at least 3 or 4 inches from our soffit depth).

Someone, I think, also made a shelf out of theirs.

I don't know if any of these kitchens are in the Finished Kitchens Blog, but you might check. I suggest you also do a search for "soffit" and "soffits" since there have been some threads about this very topic. Use the search box on the bottom of the thread list page, not the top.

HTH!

I just discovered that my soffits are full of plumbing and electrical stuff that cant be moved. We decided to have panels made to match the cabinets. Nothing is installed, yet, but I've seen pictures of this in magazines and it looked very nice. Hopefully, ours will too!

Here's a great example from the FKB. "See Gail2"

Here is a link that might be useful: {{!gwi}}

WOW. You'd never know!

amcofar,

I love the look of that molding. I had seen photos of that kitchen on GW before, but when I wanted to look at them again, I couldn't remember where I had seen them. Thanks so much for posting that photo.

We're going the same route as Buehl. Our cabinets have a contemporary, slab door. We'll be going with tall doors up to the ceiling, but in a couple of the cabinets when you open the doors, there will be a flat panel up on top, 6 or 8 inches deep, covering the pipes & all.

Another possibility we discussed was to put a an upper row of cabinets about 1 foot tall, with some of them being fake door panels which don't open. Either slabs like the rest, or possibly a row of doors with obscuring glass inserts. I like glass inserts in doors, but I'm not that neat when I put things away behind closed doors, so I'm reluctant to use them. Up there, where the doors don't open, I wouldn't be able to make much of a mess. :-)

HollyK just posted a thread of her DIY Remodel for 5K. It has an interesting way of dealing with "soffits." I think it's an attractive, creative way of dealing with that area.

Here's how we handled our soffits (which we added in the remodel) - we still don't have our ceiling trim up yet, either. :-)

Here is a link that might be useful: My Eventually Almost Mostly Finished Craftsman Kitchen

Ours couldn't be removed. I love what our cabinet guy did!